Chapter 23
I checked the reward with a pounding heart.
[Congratulations on clearing Floor 11 (EXTREME).]
[The Rank 1 bonus has been applied!]
[All stats +10]
“The all-stats bonus came through normally....”
[The first-clear bonus has been applied!]
[You have obtained the Seed of the World Tree.]
A familiar first line. An unfamiliar second one.
The next moment, a bead emitting a faint blue glow floated above my palm.
Inside the bead, something that looked like a tiny seed was faintly visible.
An item that looked more like an egg than a seed.
“What is this thing for?”
It sounded like a pretty extraordinary item just from the name alone.
But I couldn't figure out its exact use.
“It's not something you grow or anything.... Eh, I can just ask.”
I decided to ask the Mage Gallery without overthinking it.
The regulars there would definitely know.
As soon as I got home, I wrote a post and uploaded it.
[Title: Cleared Floor 11 and got this. What is it?]
Author: ㅇㅇ(222.222)
(World Tree Seed screenshot.jpg)
In short, the item name is the Seed of the World Tree.
ㄴ 냉장고 : It's a Seed of Purification. It's a Floor 10+ item that purifies contamination.
ㄴ p깟쮸 : If you keep it equipped, the surrounding contamination level gradually goes down.
The higher you go in the Floor 10s, the worse the swamp and jungle contamination gets, so you can't progress without it.
ㄴ 마법은화력 : You're lucky. Usually you'd have to pay for one. I think they're about ten million won.
“Why is it so expensive?”
I don't think I need it.
Maybe I should sell it and turn it into money instead?
I can just wipe everything out with desertification anyway.
Do I even need terrain purification?
When I said that in the gallery, I got a baffled reaction.
ㄴ 마법은화력 : What's desertification?
Ah, right. I hadn't mentioned that yet.
I decided to record a video while I was at it.
After crumpling up an empty cola can from home, I cast Weathering.
At the same time, I felt a small amount of mana being consumed, and the cola can turned into fine sand and scattered away.
As soon as I uploaded the video, comments started flying in.
ㄴ 냉장고 : What kind of broken-ass cheat skill is that?
ㄴ p깟쮸 : This tower is such a godawful luck-based hellhole.... I'm feeling some serious relative deprivation....
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(A22.222) : You all have a Rainbow each and you're still whining.
ㄴ p깟쮸 : Like there's going to be a skill that turns whatever you touch into lightning.
“Come to think of it, that's true.”
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(444.444) : But it's not that broken. You can't turn living things into sand. Things like plants gulp mana like crazy.
ㄴ 마법은화력 : This is making me want to flick you on the forehead.
ㄴ p깟쮸 : A perfect advance-and-retreat, too.
“Bragging, huh. I really wasn't trying to.”
Still, good is good.
My mouth kept curling upward on its own.
Then 풍뎅이 left a comment that caught my attention.
ㄴ 풍뎅이 : I just saw the post. That one is a little different from the Seed of Purification I know. It's blue, isn't it? The original is red.
ㄴ p깟쮸 : It's real. Come to think of it, the name was the Seed of the World Tree. Where did you get this?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(888.88E) : This is the EX first-clear reward.
ㄴ p깟쮸 : That's so unfair. So unfair. I want EX unlocked too.
“Hmm.... I guess I'll have to cancel the sale for now.”
So it really was an EX-exclusive hidden item.
Then it definitely wouldn't end with just purification.
Sure enough, guesses about how to use it started popping up soon after.
ㄴ 마법은화력: This is something only I know.... With the original Seed of Purification, you can open hidden pieces too, right? I think this should work the same way.
ㄴ p깟쮸: Ah! I know that one too! Finally, a hidden piece I actually know about has shown up!
ㄴ 냉장고 : For the record, I know it too.
ㄴ 마법은화력 : (sad emoticon)
p깟쮸 got excited and started going wild. But my interest was elsewhere.
The reason was that 풍뎅이 suddenly asked a completely out-of-the-blue question.
ㄴ 풍뎅이 : Hey, newbie.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(11B.11D) : ?
ㄴ 풍뎅이 : So, you're going to keep pushing the Tower at this pace?
A sudden question. I answered as if it were only natural.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(11B.11D) : Yeah, of course.
ㄴ 풍뎅이 : Hmm.... Got it, for now.
What was that about?
I found 풍뎅이's odd reaction strange, but I didn't think too deeply about it.
I went back to pressing for details on how to activate the hidden piece.
***
Meanwhile, at South Korea's National Assembly.
A heavy silence hung over one lawmaker's office.
Across from Kim Suho, who sat on a leather sofa with his arms crossed,
a man in his fifties, neatly dressed in a suit, opened his mouth with a troubled expression.
He was Park Jeongwon, chair of the National Defense Committee in charge of Hunter-related policy.
“Kim Suho, we have no choice.”
Park Jeongwon's voice carried deep fatigue.
“China is pressuring us from every direction. And on top of that, the U.S. is pressuring us too.”
Park Jeongwon paused for a moment and then added,
“Looks like they've already reached an understanding among themselves.”
Kim Suho just stared out the window without answering. At his silence, the lawmaker stepped closer.
“They seem to think we're hiding that new Ranker.”
Park Jeongwon cautiously studied Kim Suho's profile and asked,
“Kim Suho, tell me honestly. You know something, don't you?”
The lawmaker was certain of it.
“You've been blocking our investigation the whole time too.... You know who it is, don't you?”
Only then did Kim Suho turn his head. His eyes were colder than usual.
“I don't know.”
A short, firm answer.
“And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you.”
At his added words, the lawmaker's face hardened.
“Kim Suho! Why on earth are you doing this?”
The lawmaker's voice rose.
At that moment, Kim Suho stood up from his seat. For the first time, a faint anger entered his voice.
“Since when did a South Korean National Assembly member start acting as a spokesman for the U.S. and China?”
The air in the office froze.
“So because you're worried about them, you're telling us to trample to death the sprout that's only just begun to grow on our side?”
Kim Suho's rebuke left the lawmaker momentarily speechless.
But soon he offered a practical rebuttal.
“Then can you hold off all seven S-rank Hunters in the U.S. and China by yourself?”
Silence fell.
The lawmaker's next words hit home.
“You can't be the one to protect this country from them, can you?”
Kim Suho closed his mouth again. It wasn't a wrong statement.
Even an S-rank Hunter couldn't take on seven alone.
The lawmaker didn't miss the wavering look in his eyes.
“Do you think I want to be doing this? Do you think I like this method? But what choice do we have?”
Kim Suho understood the lawmaker's position.
But he couldn't accept it.
The fact that, because they lacked the strength to protect their own, an unknown genius who hadn't even appeared yet had to be sacrificed to another country.
Kim Suho found that distasteful.
“Think it over, Kim Suho. They know full well they're making an unreasonable request.”
....
“If we give them what they want and get as much concession as we can in return, that's the profitable move.”
A long silence passed.
With a deep sigh, Kim Suho finally opened his mouth.
His voice was full of resignation.
“…Do as you please.”
Kim Suho closed his eyes.
“Lock down the Tower as they want.”
“Really?”
Relief and color returned to the lawmaker's face.
Kim Suho added quietly,
“But I will also do my best.”
Kim Suho's eyes opened again. A new light shone within them.
“I will carry out the justice I believe is right. So you do your best from your own position too.”
With those words, Kim Suho left the office.
***
Today, too, I easily cleared Floor 12 and headed home.
I leveled the ground with desertification, then enjoyed the ensuing pastoral slaughter.
I was just opening the gallery and thinking about what trash post to write to show off today's results when it happened.
It was strange.
There wasn't a single pervy post, spam post, hunter salary post, or gossip post cluttering the board.
“There's no way the gallery would be this clean.”
Something had gone wrong. A big something, at that.
I looked through the post list in confusion.
And soon I found out why.
[Title: Is it true they're putting the Tower under lockdown? ㄷㄷ]
[Title: Hey, if they're really locking it down, what are we supposed to do?]
“What is this...?”
An event bigger than I could have imagined had just exploded.
I hurriedly clicked on one of the hot posts.
[✪ Title: Official) Government decides to cooperate with a global restriction on Tower access]
Author: Park Reporter
I'm a working journalist. Verified.
This is under embargo—how do you all already know??
I've already been warned several times that information control is a matter of life and death....
I don't know who risked their life to leak it first, but it's the real deal.
China has already gone into lockdown.
Europe is next week, then Japan after that.
Korea is last, as far as I know.
Anyway, we've got some time.
Once the lockdown starts, security forces will be stationed all around the Tower so nobody can sneak in.
Nobody knows why they're doing this bullshit.
On the surface, it's supposedly for safety inspections to prevent collapse, but honestly, that's nonsense.
If they could do that, they'd have done it ages ago, wouldn't they?
ㄴ Damn government bastards are at it again
ㄴ Wait, they're restricting access worldwide? What the hell is going on?
ㄴ Seriously, I genuinely have no idea what they're trying to do.
[✪ Title: Hey, are you still going to side with the government even after this?]
Author: ㅇㅇ(58.234)
Are you still going to keep listening to the government and live like that?
They're ruthless, ruthless....
Hunter strike... I guess we should join?
ㄴ But what about the A-ranks and S-ranks? Doesn't this mean they agreed to the restrictions?
ㄴ Right? If they usually act like kings, shouldn't they step up when something like this happens?
ㄴ For real lol. In the end, once pressure came from abroad, they still bent the knee, right? Blaming the government is absurd.
ㄴ [deleted comment]
ㄴ [deleted comment]
I was shocked and immediately opened the Mage Gallery.
If it was here, maybe someone knew the inside story.
[Title: Guys, what are you talking about right now?]
Author: ㅇㅇ(D44.444)
Tower lockdown? What the hell is that?
To my frantic question, 풍뎅이 answered as if they had been waiting for it.
ㄴ 풍뎅이 : It's all because Demigod is trying to get to you.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(D44.444) : Huh?
ㄴ 풍뎅이: The government is working with other countries to seal off the Tower one by one.
There’s still some time before Korea’s turn. We'll go through the U.S., Europe, and Japan first, and Korea will be locked down last.
The lockdown period will probably be about a week at most per region? They told me a few days ago. Demigod's pressure is definitely in play.
Why the hell would they do something that stupid?
Wouldn't it be enough if I just took a little break from climbing the Tower?
There had to be some other hidden reason, and I carefully started typing.